Alan Moore got an inspiration a couple of years ago, and everybody around him laughed.

“God bless you,” one guy snickered. “Go for it.”

Moore wanted to resume his kicking career. The first problem was finding some square-toed kicking shoes. Even if you haven’t kicked in 40 years, some habits are hard to break.

“I don’t think soccer should have any place in football,” Moore said.

He located the clunky cleats preferred by straight-on kickers, and the rest is not quite history yet. But it soon will be.

Moore will become the oldest player in college football history this season. He was born Feb. 11, 1950.

That makes him 61. Or to put it in terms most college football fans can unfortunately relate to, if Nevin Shapiro wanted to buy him a drink, Moore would order a Metamucil.

It’s doubtful Miami’s Ponzi schemer would have ever invited Moore on his yacht. But if you’re tired of the scandals and arrests that dominated the preseason news, Moore is a breath of defiantly fresh air.

“I don’t want this be a handout thing,” he said. “I don’t want it to be, ‘Let’s let the old man kick.’”

They’re not just trying to score AARP points at Faulkner University.

They really want the old man to kick. He’s made 45-yard field goals in practice, though he admits 35 yards is where his comfort range ends. Of course, when you’ve been where Moore has, no field goal is too daunting.

Hop in a time machine back to 1968. Ohio State claimed a tattoo-free national title, Yale announced it would start admitting women and Moore was a kicker for Jones Junior College in Ellisville, Miss.

Back then, 18-year-olds were a little more consumed with international news than they are today. The Tet Offensive was raging and the draft lottery was approaching.

Instead of risking getting a low number and being shipped directly to Vietnam, Moore enlisted so he could choose his duty. He signed up to become a helicopter crew chief. He went to school for it and everything.

Then he went to Vietnam thinking he’d work on a nice safe base.

“They gave me a hard hat, an M-16 and sent me to the Central Highland,” he said.

Moore patrolled it for 11 months and 28 days. Then he went States-side for the rest of his enlistment, got out, got married and did construction work for the next 30-odd years.

He ended up semi-retired on an eight-acre avocado farm in Homestead, Fla. Two years ago he was in Mississippi visiting family and dropped by Jones for a football game.

Moore was half-joking when he told friends he’d like to kick again. But their eye-rolling reaction kicked a competitive nerve.

After a lot of time practicing and finding the right shoe, Moore gathered his friends on Thanksgiving weekend and made 28 of 30 extra points. A couple of months later he went to Jones on a weekend recruits were in town.

“It was three soccer kickers and the old man,” he said.

The old man out-kicked them all.

“It’s just a talent God gives you,” Moore said. “After 42 years he hadn’t taken but about 15 yards.”

Jones still preferred a younger leg, so Moore played last year for Holmes Junior College. The team went 0-9 and averaged about six points a game, so there wasn’t a lot of kicking to do.

Along came Faulkner, a private university with about 3,000 students in Montgomery, Ala. Being NAIA, it didn’t present NCAA eligibility hurdles. Moore loved the place at first sight, and the place apparently likes him.

“Everybody has really embraced this,” he said.

Moore showed up Aug. 1. Faulkner requires all unmarried students under 21 to live on campus. Moore missed out by 40 years but still decided to live in a dorm.

Like a lot of college football players, he doesn’t take getting an education too seriously. Unlike a lot of college football players, he has a decent reason.

“At this point in life it’s much more important that I have a positive influence on kids,” Moore said.

If he were 30, Moore said he might be determined to get a degree and pursue a Masters. But he just wants to take it one semester at a time for now. After all, he has five grandkids he’d like to spend time with. He thinks they’ll all be in the stands next Saturday when Faulkner plays host to Ave Maria College. Tom Thompson of Division III Austin College was also 61 when he kicked an extra point in 2009.

Moore plans to do more than just an extra point. He wants to kick game-winning field goals, and do it the old-fashioned way.

Square-toed and straight-ahead.

Moore’s determination probably won’t lead to the demise of soccer-style kicking. But it might inspire you the next time people scoff at your dream.